PNC's Earnings Rise on Loan Growth--Update

PNC Financial Services Group Inc.'s second-quarter earnings and revenue topped estimates as the regional bank's lending continued to grow.

The Pittsburgh-based bank said loans grew 4.3% from a year ago to $218 billion, fueled by a rise in commercial and consumer lending balances.

Continue Reading Below

Banks across the board are expecting to get an earnings boost from recent interest-rate increases, but loan growth was expected to be tepid in the second quarter. PNC is the first major regional bank to report results this quarter.

PNC also said Friday it plans to expand its middle-market business into Denver, Houston and Nashville next year. It recently expanded into Dallas, Kansas City and Minneapolis as well. Earlier this year, the bank said its lending growth was coming from new markets as opposed to increased demand from longtime clients.

Low interest rates last year hurt banks' profits by limiting the amount of interest the banks could charge on loans, but the Federal Reserve raised rates in December, March and June. The low rates were particularly hard on regional banks, which don't benefit from large trading divisions like their Wall Street rivals.

Over all PNC, reported earnings of $1.09 billion, or $2.10 per share, up from $966 million, or $1.82 per share, in the year-earlier quarter. Revenue jumped 7% to $4.06 billion. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had forecast earnings of $2.02 per share on revenue of $3.99 billion.

Shares, inactive premarket, have risen 8.9% to $127.32 so far this year.

Advertisement

Write to Imani Moise at imani.moise@wsj.com and Christina Rexrode at christina.rexrode@wsj.com